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The present invention relates to an exhaust gases purification device, which is especially applicable to all kinds of internal combustion engines, whether Diesel or Otto, turbo or not. More particularly, it relates to an exhaust gases purification device for vehicles that can eliminate a significant percentage of the harmful gases coming from the exhaust manifold of an internal combustion engine.
Presently, it is practically a standard to fit cars, trucks, vans, and vehicles alike with an exhaust gases purification device due to the growing awareness, not only from car makers, but also from the industry in general, as regards the importance to care for the environment. In Europe, for example, the Association of European Car Makers set as an objective for all the European car industry that carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) of the engines they manufacture shall be within a range of 140 g/km (an average consumption of 5.6{fraction (1/100)} km).
It is already well known that internal combustion engines generate an enormous quantity of harmful gases, such as carbon monoxide and dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, particulate material, black smoke, etc., that pollute the atmosphere once they are released. Thus, there are cities that, due to the amount of vehicles circulating and the features of the geographical areas where they are located, show highly dangerous pollution levels for their inhabitants, as is the case for the city of Mexico Federal District, or Santiago in Chile.
That is why fitting catalysts and other exhaust gases purification devices in cars, in order to diminish pollution levels due to the gases released by engines appears, rather than as an alternative, as a real need.
Most of the exhaust gases purification devices known in the art comprise a purification pre-device that carries out a treatment for carbon monoxide, and a purification device that stores and processes nitrogen oxides. Most of these devices are able to reduce highly polluting gases such as HC, CO2, CO, etc, to large extents.
There have been several exhaust gases purification devices in the previous art. For example, the following United States Patents are only examples of devices intended for this purpose: U.S. Pat. No. 6.342.192; U.S. Pat. No. 6.340.066; U.S. Pat. No. 6.338.244; U.S. Pat. No. 6.338.243; among others.
None of them achieves the objective outlined for the present invention: to purify gases through a laminar treatment device for exhaust gases flows, without putting in means that block the gas outlet. In fact, one of the effects achieved by the present invention, as shown below, is that the engine enhances its power and diminishes fuel consumption. Empirically, it has been shown that said power increase is fundamentally due to the above mentioned laminar treatment of exhaust gases. It is widely known that blocking the outlet of exhaust gases has a direct effect on the engine performance, and traditional catalysts interpose a filter element that brings about a turbulent flow and blocks the gas outlet.
Therefore, the present invention does not interpose any element, such as catalysts, honeycomb structures with precious minerals so as to retain polluting particles, as found in most of the solutions provided by the previous art.
The essential feature of the solution suggested comprises a laminar treatment of the gas flow coming from the engine, and none of the parts of the device suggested directly blocks the outlet path of exhaust gases, but laminates it, separating polluting gases with different physical/chemical features from non-polluting ones, and removing them, so as to purify exhaust gases, as will be later described in detail.
The present invention is directed to an exhaust gases purification device for reducing and/or eliminating polluting gases coming from the exhaust manifold of an internal combustion engine, whether Diesel or Otto.
The exhaust gases purification device suggested reduces the emission of harmful gases, neutralizing smoke. It recovers those unburnt gases (HC, CO2, CO), separates them from the general flow, and sends them as an intake fluid to the engine, thus reducing fuel consumption, and enhancing engine power. The device has been designed in such a way so as to alter the physical features of the flow, by modifying the duct section the gas goes through, modifying its speed at its temperature.
The device does not include movable members, nor electric members and/or electronic ones, or any other member blocking the usual gas flow, therefore no maintenance whatsoever is required.
The present device is applicable for all kinds of vehicles, such as cars, vans, utilitarian vehicles, light and heavy trucks, buses, agriculture machinery, road-building machinery, etc.
According to embodiments carried out at well known engine inspection centers, the amount of HC in exhaust gases is dramatically reduced, in some cases from 10 ppm to 2 ppm, without any kind of fitting or modification in the engine being necessary.
Likewise, the smoke presence is reduced to values as low as 0.04%, or CO, to 0%, or CO2, to 1.3% vol.
Basically, the present invention comprises an exhaust gases purification device that includes a quiet chamber wherein gases go through as they come from the engine, there, they expand and swirl, and then the gases enter a centralizer-emulsifier-diffuser assembly, and then, a laminated gas tube, a turbulent chamber with a gas recovery outlet to the engine, and lastly, the final exhaust tube.
The present invention also includes an exhaust gases treatment method for an internal combustion engine, that basically comprises the following steps of:
channeling exhaust gases coming from the exhaust manifold of an internal combustion engine, and bringing about a quick expansion of the gases within the quiet chamber;
subjecting the flow to a first traditional filtering process;
generating an impact of the flow going out of the filter, bringing about the separation of the particulate material present in the flow, from the water vapor, and the CO diverted for a later treatment;
forcing the remaining flow to pass through an elongated horizontal hole, and a second traditional filter;
the speed of the flow going out of the filter is increased, and the flow is injected two cold air drafts, diverting part of the hot gases located in the outer portion of the flow for a later treatment;
the outer part of the non-diverted remaining flow is diverted together with the rest of the polluting gases already diverted in the steps c) and e) to return to the engine intake manifold; and
the remaining non-diverted flow goes out of the device.